MARKS

Traces of Identity and Soul. More than mere marks, they are signs of being, etched memory, living symbols of those who, before words, carved their essence into skin.

Each design holds meaning: a scar on the cheek, a line on the brow, dots across the chest, a map of belonging, to an ethnic group, a family, a village.

A bodily calligraphy, for recognition at first glance.

These marks are also spiritual, binding the living to the ancestors, offering protection from unseen forces, sealing sacred rites of passage. Pain was the threshold to courage, to inclusion, to adulthood.

Wounds dressed with herbs, charcoal, tradition.

The skin rose, healed, and carried forever a silent story. A suffering that speaks without sound.

And now, is such a practice archaic? Or worth preserving? Do we discard it as relic, or honor it as root? The question remains.

In every line, a history, a soul, a choice.